1. Gloria Gaynor's grandmother lived nearby and was involved in her upbringing.
25 Facts About Gloria Gaynor
1. 2.
Gloria Gaynor enjoyed listening to the radio, and to records by Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan.
3.
Gloria Gaynor's father played the ukulele and guitar and sang professionally in nightclubs with a group called Step 'n' Fetchit.
4.
Gloria Gaynor grew up as a tomboy; she had five brothers and one sister.
5.
Gloria Gaynor's brothers sang gospel and formed a quartet with a friend.
6.
Gaynor was not allowed to sing with the all-male group, nor was her younger brother Arthur, as Gloria was a girl and Arthur was too young.
7.
The family was relatively poor, but Gloria Gaynor recalls the house being filled with laughter and happiness, and the dinner table being open to neighborhood friends.
8.
Gloria Gaynor began singing in a nightclub in Newark, where she was recommended to a local band by a neighbor.
9.
Gloria Gaynor recorded "She'll Be Sorry" as Gloria Gaynor in 1965, for Johnny Nash's "Jocida" label.
10.
Gloria Gaynor has recorded some 16 albums since her 1976 album I've Got You, including one in England, one in Germany, and two in Italy.
11.
And, unlike her first disco hits, the track was not pitched up to make it faster and to render Gloria Gaynor's recorded voice in a higher register than that in which she actually sang.
12.
Gloria Gaynor recorded a disco song called "Love Is Just a Heartbeat Away" in 1979 for the cult vampire film Nocturna: Granddaughter of Dracula, which featured a number of disco songs.
13.
In 1980 and again in 1981, Gloria Gaynor released two disco albums which were virtually ignored in the United States due to the backlash against disco, which began late in 1979.
14.
Gloria Gaynor's career received a revitalizing spark in the early- and mid-1990s with the worldwide disco revival movement.
15.
In 2001, Gloria Gaynor performed "I Will Survive" at the 30th Anniversary concert for Michael Jackson.
16.
Gloria Gaynor returned to the recording studio in 2002, releasing her first album in over 15 years, I Wish You Love.
17.
In 2004, Gloria Gaynor re-released her 1997 album The Answer as a follow-up to her successful album I Wish You Love.
18.
On September 19,2005, Gloria Gaynor was honored twice when she and her music were inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame, in the "Artist" category, along with fellow disco artists Chic and Sylvester.
19.
Forty years after its release, Gloria Gaynor continues to ride the success of "I Will Survive", touring the country and the world over and performing her signature song on dozens of TV shows.
20.
On May 16,2015, Gloria Gaynor was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Music by Dowling College.
21.
On May 6,2017, Gloria Gaynor performed with her band at the Library of Congress' celebration of disco music at Bibliodiscotheque, a disco dance party in the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building.
22.
In December 2019, "I Will Survive" trended on TikTok and Gloria Gaynor performed the dance at the LifeMinute TV studios in Times Square, NY.
23.
In 2021, Gloria Gaynor returned to disco music when she recorded "Can't Stop Writing Songs About You" with Australian singer Kylie Minogue for the reissue of Minogue's fifteenth studio album Disco entitled Disco: Guest List Edition.
24.
The collaboration occurred following Gloria Gaynor praising Minogue for keeping disco alive with her album of the same name.
25.
In 2022, Gloria Gaynor competed in season eight of The Masked Singer as "Mermaid" who rode around on a giant clam-like vehicle that the Men in Black had to push around.